The diet industry is huge. Why is that? One of the main reasons is diets don’t work long term, hence the appetite (sorry for the pun) for the latest diet. Diets only work if you need to get to a certain weight for a particular date. This is the case in bodybuilding or one of the many combat sports. The average person is not training to be Mr Olympia or getting ready to challenge for a world title fight!

Why Do A Diet That Will Not Last Long Term?

Maybe you want to get to a certain weight before a holiday which is fair enough. The problem is when you come off the diet after your holiday you start to put the weight back on if not more because you have stopped following the diet. You will probably start putting weight back on during the holiday whilst the diet is left back at home.

5 Tips to Get to Your Ideal Weight and Stay There!

1) Decide what weight you would like to be. You cannot arrive at a destination if you don’t know where you are going!

2) Add cardio and resistance training as part of a healthy balanced lifestyle

3) Monitor your results to see how far you are off your weight goal

4) Slowly replace one unhealthy calorie dense food item from you diet every month. In its place add a healthier food item which is less calorie dense. Leaving a month between will form a new habit of eating the new food item in your diet. Breaking bad habits is the key!

The real truth in losing weight is to have a calorie deficit. If you eat only healthy food you will still put weight on if you are consuming more calories than you are burning off. The same would apply if you only ate junk food. If you ate less junk food calories than you burn off you would lose weight also.

Now I am not saying you should eat junk food and lose weight. Far from it. I just wanted to give you an example. The key to losing weight is to create a calorie deficit whilst eating as much clean healthy food as you can. There is no point losing weight if you are not healthy on the inside. That’s why you should try and cut down on the junk and processed rubbish that seems to be the staple diet for the majority these days.

The 90/10 rule is one of the best I’ve come across. Eat 90% healthy foods and 10% can be for those foods that you enjoy but that are not the healthiest. It’s all about balance!

I will go into more details in future articles. You can still eat your favourite foods but you will eat them in moderation. Remember you only get one body to live in so don’t abuse it!